Hymnal Page Scan: Hymns of the Faith p.248 Hymnary.org

Keyboard Recording:

1 The nearer I reach the end of life,
The sweeter is Home to me;
I long for the fragrant flow’rs that grow
On the banks of the Crystal Sea.

Chorus:
Home, Home, Heavenly Home,
Fair are my dreams of thee;
The nearer I reach the end of time,
The sweeter thou art to me.

2 The nearer the fading of the leaf,
The brighter the colors grow;
I sigh, when the evening shadows fall,
For the light of the morning glow. [Chorus]

3 The nearer I reach the banks of bloom,
The fairer the breezes blow;
The nearer I reach the Fount of Love,
Then the sweeter the waters flow. [Chorus]

4 The nearer I reach the Morning Land,
The fairer the golden light;
My eyes in the gath’ring mists grown dim,
Then the clearer immortal sight. [Chorus]

I have been writing on here about this Polyvagal Chart and how I am having trouble going through the deactivation process. I’ve also been reading books about the unconscious mind and how it communicates through symbols. And it clicked with my mind that the arc on the Polyvagal chart reminds me of something else. In other words, the stress I am feeling when I am looking at the Polyvagal chart might actually be related to another chart I have in my mind that has to do with aging. When my parents’ generation was turning 40 years old, they used to say that that person was now “over the hill.” You would be going uphill until you were 40, and then after 40 you were “over the hill”, which meant that all that was left was a downward decline towards the end of life. People would say it as a joke…but I think it’s how we actually think of the aging process. So I have been struggling with that feeling since I turned 40 a few years ago…that feeling of going downhill. Here is a drawing of the chart I was seeing in my mind of what it means to be “Over the Hill”:

Notice how Birth-30 years old is green, 30-60 year old is yellow, and 60-100 years old is red. I thought that was interesting. I think that’s my mind’s way of communicating that the ages that are green felt safe, the ages in the yellow feel dangerous, and I can’t even really think about being the ages in the red. I would be too worried about my health. We have learned that the mind moves towards safety, so it’s trying to go back to a time when I felt safer when I was younger, but it can’t really do that. So I’m trying to find ways to bring a feeling of safety into the other ages.

I redrew the chart to look like this where all the ages are safe:

And when I did that I saw that now it looks like a mountain. We can use this to envision all the years of life as part of an upward climb to heaven. There is no downward slope.

I recently started watching YouTube videos of relaxing nature walks and scenic drives where it makes you feel like you are walking or that you are in the car when you watch them. Some of the drives are through mountain ranges and we can use them with the imagery of the mountain in the chart about aging. I found this video that is of a drive on a road that went up into the Alps: Klausen Pass 4K HDR A Scenic Swiss Alps Adventure. There’s also this one of mountains in Austria: The Most Beautiful Mountain Road in Austria Epic Grossglockner Summer Drive. The mountains were so majestic and the scenic views were so amazing that it felt heavenly…it made me think of heaven. And it got me thinking about how at the end of this life, when we are going to meet Jesus face to face, it might feel something like driving up that mountain knowing that He is waiting at the top of it for us. And that made me think of this hymn “The Nearer the Sweeter.” The farther and farther we drive up the mountain, the sweeter and sweeter heaven becomes to us.

The chorus says, “Home, Home, Heavenly Home, Fair are my dreams of thee; The nearer I reach the end of time, The sweeter thou art to me.” You can sing those words as you are meditating about going up that mountain. During our earthly life, we are bound by time…minutes, days, hours, weeks, months, years. The end of our life on earth will be the “end of time” for us. We will then enter into eternity, which is a different state of being in which time will pass differently. It’s not revealed yet exactly how that will work. But we can spend time meditating on that and wondering what life will be like there. Envision how, as we go through each day on earth, we get one day closer to life in heaven…and think about how heaven gets sweeter and sweeter to you the closer you get to it.

Envision the fragrant flowers that grow there…how beautiful they must be. And when it says in the 3rd verse, “The nearer I reach the banks of bloom (or the banks of the heavenly shore that are blooming with flowers), The fairer the breezes blow” envision some of that heavenly breeze reaching you and bringing with it the fragrance of those heavenly flowers. See the waters that flow along the roadside from the Fount of Love in heaven…and as you get closer and closer to the top of the mountain, the sweeter and sweeter the waters become. You are getting closer to home. Envision the evening shadows talked about in the 2nd verse…and then see the golden light of the Morning Land starting to shine and getting fairer and fairer each day. The mists begin to clear and you wait to catch a glimpse of the heavenly city. Think of the joy you will feel when you see Jesus waiting for you with His arms outstretched to greet you!

And then sing through the chorus again:
“Home, Home, Heavenly Home, Fair are my dreams of thee; The nearer I reach the end of time, The sweeter thou art to me.”

As we practice meditating on this, hopefully it will help us find safety in all ages and to start viewing the aging process as an upward journey through time to our eternal home in heaven.